Objectives
In the strategy, the goal is that Denmark should be a country where pollution from products, food, working environment, traffic and physical indoor conditions affecting the population's quality of life and health is constantly falling. Harm to animals and plants from pollution should also be limited.The level of protection must take account of especially sensitive groups of people – such as children, pregnant women, people who suffer from allergies or from chronic illness – and of particularly vulnerable ecosystems.

By 2020, no products on the market may contain chemicals with particularly problematic effects on health and the environment. Contaminated soil must not threaten drinking water or human health. By 2020, there must be no emissions to air, soil, or water which are harmful to human health or the environment. By 2020, pathogenic micro-organisms must be reduced to a level that does not pose a threat to human health. Consumers must have access to food which is safe and healthy and of high quality. Food safety must be absolute and the presence of chemical pollutants must be minimised. In 2020, no one will be exposed to harmful impacts from chemical substances at work, especially carcinogenic compounds, organic solvents, and heavy metals.

Developments — a summary
During the period 1987 to 2000, the incidence of adults with self-reported asthma and non-seasonal allergic colds has almost doubled.There has been a similar development in the incidence of hay fever, which is to say that in 2000, 12.5 per cent of all adults had reported a case of hay fever within the last year.The same period also saw an increase in the incidence of self-reported allergic eczema, which 8.2per cent of all adults had in 2000. From 1994 to 2000, the percentage of children with asthma or asthmatic bronchitis reported by their parents rose, but this increase was not significant. In 2000, asthma and asthmatic bronchitis affected approximately 7.6 per cent of all children. These complaints entail varying degrees of limitations in everyday lives and reduce the patient's quality of life. In addition to the hereditary aspect, environmental factors and lifestyle issues are regarded as important causes behind these ailments.

For chemicals, the number of common EU classifications of substances and substance groups has doubled since 1993.The substances and substance groups classified at the end of 2001 comprise 7,000 substances of the total of 100,000 substances available on the European market, either now or in the past. Common EU classification creates a basis for common risk management, including bans on thesale of substances and products which are carcinogenic, mutagenic, or hazardous to embryos, and for regulations and bans in relation to sales of substances and products which are carcinogenic.

The annual sales of pesticides which are suspected of being carcinogenic have varied since 1994. This is due to variations in the products used in the agricultural sector. From 1998-2000, there has been a pronounced drop in sales of pesticide active substances from approximately 500,000 kg to less than 50,000. This is primarily due to the phase-out of the substance isoproturone, which was used as an herbicide. This means that the level of protection has increased considerably when assessing the impact on health and the environment of plant protection products and biocides.

As regards environmental quality and other environmental factors, many threats against health and the environment have been reduced. Emissions of acidifying substances have been reduced, as have emissions of ozone-depleting substances. A total of approximately1000 remediations of contaminated soil are carried out each year.These remediation efforts are funded by a range of schemes. The activitiesaimed against the spreading of pathogenic microorganisms have been successful, which means that bathing bans are now down to 33 per cent of 1990 levels.

Emissions of the acidifying substances SO2 and NOX have dropped since 1980. SO2 emissions mainly come from combustion of fossil fuels, and the reduced emissions are the result of a switch to cleaner and more renewable energy sources.The drop in total NOX emissions is partly due to the use of catalytic converters on cars and cleaning plants at power plants. Emissions of NH3, which contributes to eutrophication in Denmark, have also dropped. This is due to reduced leaching from agriculture.

Emissions of ozone-depleting compounds, particularly the so-called CFCs, have degraded the atmosphere's ozone layer.The ozone layer over Denmark has been depleted by approximately 0.4 per cent per year on average throughout the last 20 years. Since 1979, consumption of ozone-depleting compounds has fallen considerably – by approximately 60–80 per cent when calculated in terms of the ozone-depletingeffect. It will be several years before there are discernible signs of the ozone layer being restored, and the ozone layer will possibly not be fully restored until the middle of this century.

The need for remediation of soil contamination has been calculated from 1998 onwards. There is an estimated need for remediation of 14,000 sites.The number of remediations per year has remained relatively stable throughout the period, with a slight dropin 2000.The purpose of these remediations is to ensure that soil contamination in residential areas and contamination which may threaten present or future water supply does not cause any health problems.

The number of bans against bathing is an indicator for the efforts aimed against dispersion of pathogenic micro-organisms.The number of bans against bathing has fallen steadily since the beginning of the 1990s, to a point were the level of bans corresponds to just 33 per cent of 1990 levels. This reflects a general improvement in water quality, and is a sign that the municipal efforts to eliminate the causes of pollutionhave worked.

As regards food safety, the contents of lead and mercury in food have diminished during the last 15 years.The contents of PCBs in fish have also fallen considerably since 1988.The variations in the frequency of samples where chemical pollution has been found in food do not, however, show any significant increases or reductions during the period 1990 to 2000.

The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration takes samples of food in order to examine their content of chemical pollutants. During the period 1990 to 2000, positive results were yielded from between 0.01 per cent and 0.05 per cent of the samples taken. The variations in frequency show no significant increase or reduction. The trend regarding PCB contents in cod liver from Danish waters is an indicator of PCB contents in fish in general. Restrictions on the use of PCBs were introduced in Europe in the 1980s, and this has brought about a significant reduction in marine pollution. As regards Denmark, the drop in PCB concentrations in cod liver is most clearly apparent in the Baltic and in Danish waters.

Contents in food of the hazardous heavy metals lead, cadmium, mercury, and nickel and consumption hereof have been monitored since 1984.The monitoring process has involved all food categories. Lead and mercury exhibit a downward trend over 15 years, which corresponds to the environmental efforts made against emissions of these two substances during the same period. Despite the fact that intenseenvironmental work against cadmium was carried out during the same period, consumption of cadmium fell only slightly. This also applies to nickel.The reason for this may be that cadmium and nickel both appear naturally in soil in considerable quantities.

The number of injuries caused by organic solvents and reported to the National Working Environment Authority has fallen constantly from approximately 475 reports in 1993 to approximately 150 reports in 1999. During the period 1993 to 1999, there were approximately 50 reports each year of brain damage due to heavy metals, and no significant changes are discernible.

At present, carcinogenic compounds are used commercially in quantities greater than 100 tonnes per year. In 1999, the total calculated consumption of such compounds was approximately 17,000 tonnes. Substitution and changed working processes should be used to significantly reduce this consumption. As the year 2000 must be regarded as the base year for monitoring of the use of carcinogenic compounds, it is not yet possible to establish any trends. Perspectives for development of indicators An interdisciplinary group will be established with a view to elucidating the opportunities for developing a wider set of indicators.The aim is for the proposed indicator for asthma and allergies to be developed as the data basis comes to comprise significantly wider records. In addition to this, the WHO's development of indicators for health and the environment will be carefully monitored with a view to using relevant new indicators to elucidate the objectives.

There will be a need to carry out further development of an indicator in order to include all chemicals on the market. Similarly, it would be relevant to investigate the opportunities for developing an indicator for the number of biocides which give cause for concern, have been phased out, or which have been denied access to the Danish market as a result of the approval scheme.The objective would be to elucidate the level of protection when assessing the impact on health and the environment of plant protection products and biocides.

More and better indicators will be developed on an ongoing basis. For example, there will be a need for an indicator for the atmosphere's content of fine particles (PM2.5).

In addition to this, work will be carried out to assess opportunities for developing an indicator which can elucidate discharges into the aquatic environment of heavy metals and xenobiotic substances that accumulate in the food chain.

Furthermore, work will be carried out to develop an indicator for incidences of illness caused by pathogenic micro-organisms in the environment. Work will be carried out to develop more and better indicators for the efforts regarding the working environment.

Indicator 6.2.1:Emissions of SO2, NOx, VOC, and NH3Source: The National Environmental Research Institute, Denmark
Indicator 6.2.2:Ozone layer thicknessSource: The Danish Meteorological Institute
Indicator 6.2.3:Number of sites where remediation of soil contamination has been carried out in order to enable housing and/or drinking water supply (number of remediations per year and analysed by types of financing)Source: The Danish Environmental Protection Agency
Indicator 6.2.4:Number of occurrences of pesticides in groundwater used for drinking waterSource: GEUS, Groundwater Monitoring 2001
Indicator 6.2.5:Bathing areas where water quality is so poor that bathing is not recommendedSource: The Danish Environmental Protection Agency

6.3. Food

Indicator 6.3.1:Level of selected incidences of chemical pollution in foodSource: The Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries
Indicator 6.3.2a:PCBs in cod liver from Danish waters 1988-2000Source: The Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries
Indicator 6.3.2b:Consumption of 4 heavy metals in Danish diets (all foods) in three 5-year monitoring periods analysed in micrograms per daySource: The Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries